


Unwanted

by Seasnake



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark padme, F/M, Unreliable Narrator, empress padme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 16:59:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4572447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seasnake/pseuds/Seasnake





	Unwanted

Your life isn’t how you imagined it. You never wanted this but it’s what you have. The Republic certainly wasn’t perfect, they failed Naboo when you were queen. They mishandled the war in many ways. They were overly concerned with money, wouldn’t aid a minority unless the majority could profit. Palpatine made sure to show you all this. How under the guise of justice many atrocities could be justified. In retrospect he was trying to pull you into his fold the same way he succeeded with Anikin. A two pronged attack and that was his mistake. Perhaps if he hadn’t taken the time to show you the corruption of the Republic how slavery was still legal, the way murder could be legal, you would have been more horrified when Anikin turned. You might have left him. And you know now that loosing you then would have destroyed him completely. Anakin, Vader, isn’t the man you married. At first he frightened you but after all these years you’ve learned to stand your ground. The Republic needed reform, that’s true but it was still better than an empire. 

What you wanted mattered little back then. What Palpatine put in motion couldn’t be stopped. And Vader would accept nothing less than the complete destruction of the Jedi. Palpatine may have saved your life to secure Anakin’s loyalty. But he quickly came to resent the power you still held over your husband and the remnants of the Republic. TO this day you tell yourself that his assassination was self defense, kill or be killed. Besides, what were you to do? Billions of lives depended on the new Empire. Palpatine was cruel and even at his best Anakin had little sense for politics. You did the only thing you could to save lives, stepped up and took charge. The grandiose of being Empress is unnerving and you scarified everything you once believed in but finally the galaxy is at peace. The standard of living has improved. Interplanetary linguistics, cultural anthropology and sensitivity are now taught in every school. Education in total is far more excusable. Human slavery is abolished with other racial slavery quickly being phased out. A recent project that you’re particularly proud of are the new mobile hospitals. Ships capable of docking at planets or spaceports that provide free or reduced cost medical care to civilians and training and supplies to local physicians.

Although your husband stands behind most of your changes you still argue on some things. He wished to either cull or quarantine all force sensitives. That was the fist time you put your foot down and asserted authority over him. After all, fear of loosing your children was the main reason you hated the Jedi. You would not do the same thing. Today the Empire still finds and requires special education for force sensitives. But families are given enough money for the nuclear family to relocated to where the child would be trained. Older children are encouraged to turn themselves in because they will receive a salary for willingly receiving training. They aren’t trained as Sith rather as special opps soldiers. Still no child is taken from their parents, except in cases of abuse. Another thing the Empire doesn’t’ tolerate. Child abuse cases are handled seriously with sever consequences for the perpetrators. 

The military was also a point of contention. Palpatine built up a massive armed forces and Vader wanted to keep it. You compromised and recruited most freed slaves where they could learn important skills and receive a decent salary and retirement benefits. You maintain the army for that purpose more than the scare tactics Vader wants it.

From what citizens you’ve spoken to and surveys you’ve managed to conduct, most of the population is content, happy to give up some freedoms in exchange for security. Still when no one was looking, you added some democracy. Planets elect their senators and local governors and mayors and you’ve increased the power those elected officials have. 

You’ve been subtly teaching Leia the benefits of democracy in hopes that she or her children will someday reinstate The Republic. If the Jedi order existed, your children would have been taken away from you long before now. Luke in particular is gifted in the force. The twins just turned ten and Anakin dotes on them. When he plays children you can see the man he used to be. As if loving them is the only thing more powerful than the darkside.

You have a new hope for the kids. Anakin can deny them nothing and they’ve already shown interest of the light side of the force. If they could become something new, not Jedi, not Sith, at peace with themselves without the ridiculous restrictions of either side, maybe they can be happy. At this point that’s all you want.


End file.
